Even in the darkest of times, when you feel at your loneliest, music is one thing that will always be there for you. It won’t tell you that you are wrong, and for better or worse, can help you figure out which direction your life is heading. That degree of solitude was the catalyst for Sam Richards – bassist for crust-punk band Cult Leader, to start his solo project Travelers Cold. Today we are bringing you an exclusive first play of ‘Far Too Busy’. The track is taken from the forthcoming split between Travelers Cold and Westing, the solo project of Richards friend, and former collaborator Matt Mascarenas of Heartless Breakers/Daytrader .
“Matt and I have been close friends and playing music together for many years,” said Richards of his relationship with Mascarenas.”At times we were working together, living together, and touring together. So when he moved to the East Coast to play in Daytrader, it meant pretty big changes for me. For starters, dealing with the absence of a person who was a constant in my life. Trying to be understanding and supportive of it while also being completely saddened by it. Another big change was that it put a halt to what I was doing musically and gave me a reason to start new projects, one of them being Traveler’s Cold”.
The closeness between the two runs into the narrative of ‘Far Too Busy’ as Richards explains. “It is largely about Matt and generally a song about that situation,” he continues, “Relationships dissolve, bands break up, people grow apart, at some point in your life you will feel abandoned and you won’t be able to do very much about it. Thankfully some years have passed and we live in the same town again. We’re actively working on music together and it’s great. It feels more poetic that I’ve procrastinated long enough on this project to be releasing this song on a split with Westing.”
The split, which features two tracks by each musician, is available digitally on December 11th, and you can listen to the excellent ‘Far Too Busy’ below.